


Unfamiliar Familiarity

by Medie



Category: Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 01:59:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/629068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The more things change, the more they stay the same. Kind of embarrassingly true where James T. Kirk is concerned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfamiliar Familiarity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spacemonkeyluvn](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=spacemonkeyluvn).



"Well, this is familiar," Jim says, but doesn't quite feel it. Truth is, none of this is familiar. Standing in the Farragut's VIP quarters, he doesn't feel like much of anything. This ship is palatial in comparison to anything he remembers. 

If he'd felt a relic before...

Walking away from the viewport, Jim paces a slow circuit around the room. His back aches, his shoulders are screaming at him, and, in retrospect, he should have probably taken Picard up on his suggestion to visit sickbay.

Except, he remembers the way some of the crew had stared at him. Just one, here and there, but enough that he isn't in any hurry to play museum exhibit to a bunch of youngsters. 

This is as new a world as any he's explored, but it isn't. As much as he's curious to see how things shook out, to see what the galaxy has made of itself, he also wants to go home and see the house. He wants to see what Peter's made of it. What family might be there.

And he wants to go to Vulcan.

His eyes go to the computer. All he has to do is ask. 

One question and he'll know where Spock is. 

He doesn't ask.

*

They detour to pick up Picard's people. Jim doesn't go with him to the planet. He's seen the wreckage of enough ships. 

Besides, he's still jealous enough of the Enterprise that he's not ready to see her in another man's hands yet. They say their goodbyes, make promises to meet up later, and then Picard rejoins his crew in what's left of their ship to make their own way home. Jim continues on with the Farragut.

At least, that's what he intends.

*

A hand wakes him in the night, gentle on his shoulder. "Captain Kirk." 

He opens his eyes to find Commander T'Vral looking down at him. She's a handsome woman, the ship's XO, and so much like Spock in that moment his heart aches. She seems to notice, straightening up and putting distance between them.

He's grateful. "Something I can help you with, Commander?"

She holds out a uniform. "If you would join me, sir, there is someone who wishes to speak with you."

Jim takes the bundle of cloth, sitting up. "Commander, it's the middle of the—"

"Please," she interrupts. "I would not have come were it not important, Captain, I assure you."

It isn't as close to desperation as he's seen a Vulcan get, but there's a note of something in her voice,a slight catch, that gets his attention and gets him moving. Jim nods once and she returns it before leaving the sleeping area. 

Jim doesn't notice, not at first, but when he goes to follow T'Vral, he gets a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

He's smiling.

*

"All right," he says, emerging into the main living area. "Do I get an explanation?"

T'Vral's response is to tap the communicator on her chest and say, "Energize."

Jim closes his eyes. "Really, really familiar."

And this time, he means it.

*

They materialize in a dark, smokey room. Definitely not the Farragut. He's confused at first, but then he hears the sound of someone shouting outside the door. The voice is rough, coarse, laughing as he spits insults at a crewmate...

And does so in Klingon.

Jim looks to the woman at his side in alarm. "We're on a _Klingon_ ship?"

T'Vral opens her mouth to speak, but someone else answers for her, "Indeed."

The voice is older than he remembers, just a little more tired, but it's still so familiar that Jim's heart clenches even before his head catches up. "Spock?"

Spock's familiar figure, albeit cloaked in robes, moves out of the darkness. T'Vral looks away and Jim almost kisses her for it. This isn't a moment he wants to share with anyone. He stares at Spock and Spock stares back.

"So," he says, is own voice hoarse, "Funny thing happened on the way to Vulcan."

Spock's eyes darken. Promise, anger, fear, and a thousand other things that neither of them will mention here and now. Perhaps not ever. 

"Okay, no," Jim makes a show of pressing his lips together, hands on his hips, as he thinks. "Well, how about honey, I'm home?"

Spock's eyebrow twitches, as if considering rising, and he counts it as a small victory. It's not much of one, but goddamn it, it's enough. 

Jim seizes on it and smiles wide. "So, Commander T'Vral, you didn't mention that you knew Mr. Spock."

With the permission to re-enter the conversation, T'Vral looks at him. "Ambassador Spock is a friend of my mother. He sponsored my admission to the Academy." To Spock, she adds something in quietly spoken Vulcan. 

Spock responds, gratitude obvious in his voice, if not his face.

Jim watches with fascination. He can guess who her mother is and it strikes him, not for the first time, that the galaxy went on while he was in the Nexus. Time didn't stop. His people are gone, his ship with them, but the legacy of both has certainly continued on.

By god, he's going to enjoy finding out what Sulu got up to on the Excelsior. He has a feeling _that_ is going to make for some interesting reading. He doubts Starfleet will be in any hurry to divulge Nyota's Intelligence activities, but he's standing on a Klingon vessel that, apparently, is in the business of ferrying Spock back and forth to parts unknown. 

Starfleet doesn't stand a chance.

Spock and T'Vral conclude their conversation with a nod and T'Vral steps back and away from them. She taps her commbadge again, opening and closing a channel, and then vanishes in a quick sparkle of light.

"Friend of the family, huh?"

"Indeed. Fortunate that it was her vessel Starfleet sent to retrieve Picard," Spock says. He moves closer to Jim, looking down at him with open wonder now that they're alone. Jim stares back in fascination. This isn't something he's seen from Spock before and, if nothing else, he's glad that the Seventy years between them have given him this sort of ease. "I believe it something of an understatement to say that it is agreeable to see you again, Jim, but as you are doubtless expecting it—"

"Hell with it," Jim says in the same instant and pulls Spock to him. Neither of them is the men they were and he doesn't give a good goddamn about Vulcan propriety right now.

Good thing Spock's in agreement on that one. 

They stumble together, fumbling, until they hit a wall. Jim grunts, laughs, and pushes Spock back enough to say, "You _are_ going to tell me why the hell you needed a Klingon ship and the cover of darkness to come for me. You know that, right?"

Spock's fingertips trace the line of Jim's face, reverent, and it's a long moment before he says, "I would have expected nothing less."

Jim rolls his eyes. "You're going to make me work for it, aren't you?"

Spock's eyes heat. His expression isn't quite a smile, but there's something warm about it. Warm, lazy, and absolutely seductive. "I believe that I don't wish to tell you."

He closes his eyes, laughing when Spock undoes his trousers and pushes his hand inside.

"Oh yeah," Jim says. "This is definitely familiar."

"Am I to take that as a complaint?" Spock inquires, his usual layer of innocence overlaying sarcasm, and Jim wants to sob with the pleasure and relief of it. 

"You even think of trying, Spock, and so help me, _God_." 

Jim grabs hold of Spock's robes and lets go. They've got seven decades to catch up on and he plans on enjoying every single second of it.

*

 _Romulus_? _Unification_? Spock some kind of modern day Romulan Surak?

Jim grins and presses his face into Spock's shoulder.

"Why the hell not? Sounds like fun." 

McCoy's going to kill them both. 

If that's not familiar territory, then he doesn't know what its.


End file.
